When the die is cast, where will Pete Rock stand in the pantheon of great producers? Heavy D’s little cousin has a Forrest Gumpish quality of always being in the right place at the right time. You will find the greatest rappers working during the golden era here, a diverse range of styles and boroughs from Rakim to Big Daddy Kane to Chuck D to Ghostface to AZ to Max B. That’s no coincidence. Pete has a generous spirit and a love of collaborating with any and all talent open to working with him. But you might not place him in that “visionary genius” category often reserves for a Q-Tip, Large Professor or Dilla. Even in the anecdotes attached to his recent feature on Complex, the story never gets much better than “dude came over, picked a pre-made beat and I mixed it down.” His best point of comparison is DJ Premier, an equally dedicated and inspired crate digger with a rather straightforward approach to looping.

Primo might have more bangers, but there’s a quiet, emotive quality to Pete Rock’s flips. There’s a rarefied care exhibited — a tenderness to the songs spanning two decades that comprise this zip file. His ruminative, soulful beats capture their time and place, not to mention the very essence of hip hop. This timeless quality had no better expression than one of the greatest songs our genre has to offer, “T.R.O.Y.”. From the moment a fuzzy rip of “When She Made me Promise” drifts in like a lost ghost, when that nostalgic horn loop from Tom Scott’s “Today” comes in acapella, Pete and CL’s dedication to lost friends and family reminds us that in the act of sampling, hip hop itself is a medium built on memories, the past, on the backs of the greats, gone but not forgotten.

Using this excellent scrap album as a tracklist, POW proudly presents 39 (sorry Charles, you were arbitrarily replaced with “Tru Master”) songs from an all time great just in time for summer.

I think PR will continue to sit comfortably near the top in best producer of all time discussions. For my money he is one of the best technical producers in hip hop, the way he chops up his basslines and samples is incredible.

http://somanyshrimp.com David

” His best point of comparison is DJ Premier, an equally dedicated and inspired crate digger with a rather straightforward approach to looping.”

This is the case now but doesnt really describe the evolution of his career very accurately

http://www.discovietnam.bandcamp.com Disco Vietnam

Once you’re top 5 you’re the best. Pete Rock put the music in the forefront.

ace malone

I think most informed hip-hop listeners would hesitate to say whether Q-Tip and Large Professor are in the same pantheon of producers as Dilla, Preemo and PR – not the other way around. And I say this as someone who has tremendous respect for LP and Q Tip.

Rojo Toro

Nice homage to the master, for me there will never be another.

Comparing him and Prem is like comparing Mozart and Beethoven, both brilliant in their way but very different styles of doing something similar.

My thing for Pete has always been the depth and layers, anyone can lay down a beat with a hook over it, to me the amazing thing about Pete is that for him that is just the beginning. Before you’ve heard a word spoken over the average PR track you might hear 5 different loops synched and running concurrently; drums, bells, bass, horn / guitar, vibes, then scratching, and finally the MC.

I think Prem is great and certainly personal taste plays a big role here, he does what he does very well but I’ve never felt he had the depth or the layered sound that Pete describes as “putting a puzzle together.”

That said in all the comparisons Pete has mad praise for Prem, far as I can tell they like and respect each other. Supposedly there is an album coming from both of them at some point.

If you prefer simplicity, a more clean and direct sound, pick your spots and run with them certainly Prem is the man but for that tidal-wave of sound, hooks, over hooks, sometimes so many it’s hard to count them all, for me it’s always been money earn’in from Mt. Vernon.